Who Are The 8 Players You Would Protect from An Expansion Draft?

[Mavs2021]

Whoever is GM/POBO of the 2 expansion teams will have a really fun job, at the start. Trying to foretell which 8 players from the other 30 teams will be protected, and how to go about building the team with their 1 pick from each of the 30 other teams.

I think Julius Randle could end up being one of the stars on one of the expansion teams. Maybe DominAyton too. Lol.

No way they leave Randle unprotected. Unprotected is for bad contracts with negative value. Randle is on a good contract with positive value. Zach Lavine would probably be the top player on one of these teams, simply for the fact that even expansion team need to reach the salary floor.

More interesting question: Do you have to draft from other teams? Can´t you just retain full financial flexibility and chase 2-3 star free agents with your blank canvas?